So, how does overshoot work?

For the life of me I just can't get the motion path's overshoot to work. I've tried everything I can possibly think of, and absolutely nothing works.

Any ideas? It doesn't help when the manual is out of date, and doesn't mention what the 'static' option is for either.

While I'm on the topic of moving things, is it just me, or is it impossible to edit the interpolation of an easein/out without changing the object's movement path? (hence the need for the motion path) I've always found that frustrating, to say the least.

From your message, it's not really clear to me exactly what effect you are trying to generate. I can help you with RED, but first I need to know exactly what look you are trying to achieve.

In RED, overshoot is typically associated with type-on effects. It describes, for instance, the effect of text arriving on screen and pushing past it's target / destination position, then coming back to rest at the target / destination position. Or something that bounces before coming to rest.

The Static option, when enabled, prevents the automatic generation of keyframes when a parameter value is changed from the default state. When disabled, ie when you are in Animate Mode, a keyframe is generated at the current frame in time for any change to any parameter. The exception to this rule is when any individual parameter has been set to Constant Interpolation, which because of it's nature prevents keyframes from being generated for that particular parameter regardless of the setting of the static/animate mode switch.

There are bezier handles in the timeline that can be used to adjust the position of an object - this is a value graph. RED does not have a separate speed graph option in the current shipping version of the product.

Thanks Peter. I'm not working on a specific effect- just moving a basic image around to gain an understanding of how things work with the motion path filter. What I'm looking to do is move from point A to point B, and control the speed at which things happen. Looking into the overshoot option is for pure curiosity's sake.

It's easy to understand what overshoot means, but what's difficult is understanding why it does nothing to a moving image in the motion path filter. Is it limited to text, and if so, why does the manual not say anything about it, and instead recommends another filter instead of motion path for text?

Thanks for the info about the static option. Why is it included inside the motion path filter though, when someone could simply turn off the automatic generation of keyframes in Red?

As for the speed graph- isn't that the same thing as altering the velocity curves? Or, is a speed graph more or less what the velocity curves should be? (ie: altering the speed of the effect in a way which doesn't alter position) I've noticed that right now editing velocity curves is pretty much pointless, since altering them often results in everything else being altered too (position, etc).

At the moment my biggest frustration with Boris is the keyframing system. I love the filters and effects, but trying to control the position and speed of objects via keyframing is... well, not too fun :)

Generally speaking, the Motion Path Filter is most useful when you want to apply the same motion to several objects at once. The filter enables the creation of a path shape along which objects can be placed. You then meyframe the motion of the shape(s) along the generated path shape. There's a tutorial on our web site that explains the feature in more detail. I would recommend checking it out .. here's a link: http://www.borisfx.com/red/motion_path/MotPath.html

For what you are doing, I would suggest enabling the Animate mode, then setting the start and end points for the shape in time. Set the keyframe interpolation to ease in / out. Then enable the Motion Path on-screen controls (Preview>Controls>Motion Path) and use a combination of manipulating the motion path's on-screen bezier handles and sliding the keyframes in the timeline to control the speed and direction of movement. Does that explain this system a little bit better?

Not really, since I already know how it works. That's not to say I don't appreciate you going over things- I do, it's just that as mentioned, I'm trying to find out why parts of the filter don't seem to work.

I've been over every tutorial on the 'net, and no one uses the overshoot function. Does it even work? I'm pretty sure the acceleration function doesn't either... unless the result is so small I can hardly notice.

Ah, I see now. It's overshoot for the path's movement... not for the movement of the object along the path. That's kind of... interesting (I guess) if not that helpful, but at the very least it's nice to know how things work!